Language : Its Structure and Use

Rating:
Summary: written for idiots
Review: I was looking for an introductory textbook of linguistics, and found this book, which is the required text for the introductory linguistics course at a local university. I immediately disliked the book, but forced myself to read carefully the first chapter so I could be more specific about what it was that I disliked. I was reminded of Steven Pinker's comment in The Language Instinct about how poorly most linguists use the written English language.

I then read the reviews of the previous (third) edition, including the pan by a linguistics graduate student, who noted numerous factual errors, and the criticism of a student who found the format user-unfriendly.

The format of the fourth edition has not been improved. The type is difficult to read and the layout unimaginative. It reminds me of the manuals written for computer programs.

The language style is verbose and vague, and the tone pompous and patronizing. It seems to be written with the lowest common denominator in mind. I suspect he has in mind the students in the Schools of Education, who are among the lowest on the IQ curve among college students. This is no excuse: education students are going to teach our children, and deserve well-written textbooks just as much as philosophy majors.

His political views are "snuck" (or "sneaked", if you prefer) into the text in various cutesy ways, typically resulting in confusing more than clarifying contentious issues. I suspect this is a deliberate strategy for appearing to be neutral on such subjects, while at the same time advancing his own viewpoint. Contrast Finegan's slovenly discussion of the issue of "Standard English" with that of David Crystal in the Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, which is a model of clarity, without being in the slightest doctrinaire or judgemental. Crystal's point is that there are good practical reasons for attempting to identify a "standard" version of the English language, even if it is used only by a small minority of users of English. Finegan clearly disapproves of standards of any kind for language use, but since he can't mount an intellectually respectable defense of his position, and even freely admits that he has written his book in Standard American English so that it can be read "in many parts of the world", he resorts to fudging the issue instead of clarifying it.

Finegan similarly slyly advances his own tendentious views on multilingualism, immigration, "cultivated" or "received" pronunciation, and animal languages. He implies that the issue of chimpanzee use of language is still an open question, when in fact it has been clearly demonstrated that language acquisition is uniquely human, and there is no demonstrable continuity between chimpanzee use of signs and human use of language.

The lack of coverage of the neuroanatomic and neurophsysiological basis of language function is notable, a weakness that no doubt reflects Finegan's personal bias toward social determinism noted in the discussion of chimpanzee "language".

There is much useful information in this book, and Finegan is no doubt a competent scholar of linguistics. Too bad he isn't a better writer, and more open-minded.

Lastly, the book is far too expensive for what it is. Buy it used, if you need it for a class.